Micromanaging armies and commanders

Useful tips;

The larger a squad (Men grouped together) the more morale it has.

Also it is the average morale of a group that is taken. So a unit that has naturally low morale (5) is put in a squad with 9 with high morale (15). The "Squad" morale would be 14. Use this on low morale but good units (Elephants, mammoths, etc) and those that have a high attrition rate (anything else). (This is why Standard Bearers are so good).

In general the AI is stupid about it's attack on certain positions and individuals. This is different for Independants and AI's then totally thrown for a loop vs other players.

Common AI tactics:

AI missle Users aim for "Closest"
AI fliers are usually set for "Attack Rear" or "Attack Archers", almost never "Hold and Attack".
AI Cavalry are set to "Closest" or "Large Monsters"

Those are just some of the more common that you can exploit.

Unless you script your mages; they are fairly inept and will cast spells they do not need to for any given situation. More often than not you have an initial casting string you'd prefer; though it's does not always happen that way as the computer does what it wants from time to time, especially if your casters are drawn close to an enemy.

Your commander will not rout if he is fatigued; but he or his squads will if he is hurt or killed.

So it's up to you to decide if you want to put all your eggs in one basket or give different commanders different squads.

Something you may want to start in the practice of is using units to 'guard commander' and place a reserve (A squad of units) Over your commander stack, wherever it is positioned. This will allow you to guard your otherwise fragile commanders. For melee commanders you want to try to keep out of combat but have no spells try "Hold, Hold, Hold, Hold, Hold, Stay behind troops"

That's all I can think of off the top of my befuddled mind. Need to sleep.

Edit: I also forgot if you use CTRL and a # it will reserve that command string for you to place by just hitting the number. (Example: Hover over a string you created that says; "Summon Earthpower, Blade Wind, Blade Wind, Blade Wind, Cast spells" press CTRL+1, then all you have to do is go down your mage line that you want to have that command string and press 1 over their command fields. Works for all units and commander scripts

[ November 29, 2003, 11:57: Message edited by: Zen ]